so we'll get a hydrogen based supercar? :tongue:
That would definitely catch my attention :biggrin:
Even if we only have two hydrogen stations in the entire country :wink:
I think there will be a number of new hydrogen stations being built everywhere in a few years, as IMHO it is the best solution for long distance trucks.
I've been saying it for a while in other threads- Honda is all-in on hydrogen. This also has to do with Japan's significant investment in H2 infrastructure in the coming years. They plan to have all the islands fully connected to H2 stations everywhere and are investing in several large-scale H2 production facilities for their own 100% domestic supply. Part of this is Japan's historical dependence on petroleum imports, which has caused a lot of problems for them politically/historically (WWII).
By 2030, there will be a significant H2 infrastructure in most major metro areas in Japan. It's not just Honda, Toyota also plans a massive H2 product line- both fuel cell and ICE- to eventually 100% replace their petroleum-based products. This is to mostly feed their domestic market, since as others have noted, building a viable H2 infrastructure in the continental U.S. is many orders of magnitude more difficult than in a small country like Japan.
I think the
Gen3 NSX will be a FCEV using supercapacitors to deliver supercar performance without the range and charging issues of a EV. From my perspective, the NSX is both a statement car and a technology demonstrator. The Gen1 NSX made the statement that Honda could build the best sports car in the world. It was also a technology demonstrator in so many aspects: all-aluminum monocoque, 4-channel digital ABS, electric power steering, the compliance pivot, etc. The NSX challenged the contemporary view of a supercar- uncomfortable, unreliable and difficult to live with. The Gen2 did the same thing. This time, it showed people what a hybrid could be. Most people in 2012 thought of a Prius when you said hybrid- a soulless golf cart. The NC1 is a statement that hybrids (and by extension Earth-friendly cars) don't have to be boring. It is also a technology demonstrator in the hybrid powertrain, the SH-AWD handling logic, the multi-material spaceframe, etc. It uses technology and clever innovation to deliver the average customer a P1 experience at a fraction of the price. Like the Gen1, the Gen2 challenges the contemporary assumptions that hybrids are boring cars and that hybrid performance was only attainable in million-dollar hypercars or F1.
So what are today's assumptions? H2 will never work. Fuel cell cars are just too slow. The future is plug-in EV. Tesla already won. I'm telling you- the Honda engineers are hearing all this and smiling...and then putting their heads down and getting back to work. The Gen3 NSX is going to be a FCEV and it's going to blow all these assumptions away. Like the last two, it's going to change the way people think about what cars can do.
Technical challenges as I see them:
- Get the stack to kick off enough power to rapidly charge the supercapacitors
- Then make the stack small and light enough for a sports car
- Figure out a way to package the H2 tanks/batteries/stack to fit in a sports car layout (H2 helps cool the batteries?)
- Supercapacitors + batteries = enough juice for rapid acceleration but prevent drain off of all EV power. The stack must be able to keep up!
Honda loves challenges like these. I can't wait to see what they come up with.
